Mumbai Metro to begin service today

June 08, 2014 - 1:46:52 am

A metro train rides through Mumbai, yesterday.

Mumbai: Maharashtra’s first Metro Rail is scheduled to be inaugurated here yesterday, with its developer, Reliance Infra (RInfra) announcing a one-way promotional fare of Rs10 for a month. The state government insisted that the company stick to the original fares of Rs9, Rs11 and Rs13 and not raise this to Rs10-Rs40 as it intended to.

Rinfra has built the 11.40km Metro Rail running east-west between Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar, at a cost of Rs4,300 crore.

Chavan hinted that in case RInfra went ahead with the “arbitrary fare hike”, he would not attend the inauguration function today.

In fact, he said the inauguration’s go-ahead was given subject to not hiking the fares and it must stick to the agreement.

Referring to the efforts by some Bharatiya Janata Party MPs of Mumbai like Kirit Somaiya and Gopal Shetty, Chavan alleged that “the BJP is helping RInfra in the fare hike”. “The BJP must make its stand clear on the issue of fares and take responsibility for any hike in the ticket rates,” Chavan said.

He made it clear that any fare hike would only be after the opinion of the expert committee on fares and the state government was opposed to any arbitrary increase in the passenger ticket rates.

Earlier yesterday, Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL) — the Metro Railways Administration (MRA) for the Mumbai Metro Line-1 project — said in a statement that “the commercial operation of the metro service will start on June 8 at 12 noon. The company has now received all requisite government approvals for commercial operations”.

“To provide the benefits of a new and world class experience to lakhs of valued citizens of Mumbai, a concessional and promotional fare of Rs 10 only will be charged for the first 30 days, irrespective of the distance travelled on the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar (VAG) corridor for a single one way trip between any stations. This promotional fare is notwithstanding the initial fare fixed and notified separately on initial opening of the metro railway under Central Metro Act,” the statement said.

MMOPL CEO Abhay Mishra said: “The beginning of commercial operation of Mumbai Metro is a historical moment for the city of Mumbai. With this first rail connectivity between east and west, Mumbaikars can avoid as many as 45 traffic signals and reduce travelling time from 90-120 minutes. These air conditioned services are safe, convenient and cost effecctive. This service will change the life of Mumbaikasrs and the way they commute every day.”

The services will start 5.30am and continue till midnight with a total of 16 rakes deployed on the sector, serving the glamour and IT centres of Versova and the business and manufacturing areas of Ghatkopar at an 80 kmph speed.

Each of the colourful rakes with four coaches will have a capacity of around 375 commuters or around 1,500 commuters per service, zooming above the city between the two points —Versova-Ghatkopar — with a total of 12 elevated stations en route.

Meanwhile, intense competition started among activists of the Nationalist Congress Party and Bharatiya Janata Party over claiming credit for the Mumai Metro.

NCP activists carried out a symbolic inauguration with a small pooja near Ghatkopar marking the start of Mumbai Metro while Somaiya and Shetty staged a road block agitation near Ghatkopar protesting the delays in starting the Metro Rail services.